Imaging devices, such as printer, copy machine and fax machine, are common tools in the work and life of people today. An imaging device generally includes two parts, i.e., a main body and an ink cartridge. The ink cartridge, as a consumable, is usually detachably installed in the main body of the imaging device and may be replaced easily.
In a conventional imaging device, a plurality of ink cartridges may be provided for the sake of long time use, or ink cartridges with various colors may be provided to meet users' demand for different colored images. To ensure correct install location of each ink cartridge, the technology for detecting location of ink cartridge is proposed.
The technology for detecting location of ink cartridge may be realized based on the emission and receiving of light. A light source may be provided on the chip of the ink cartridge, and a light receiver may be provided in the main body of the imaging device. For detecting the location of a certain ink cartridge, the ink cartridge is placed at a location facing the light receiver, and the light source on the chip is controlled to emit light, then the receiver receives the light and detects and records the amount of light. Then, the adjacent ink cartridge(s) is(are) controlled to emit light, and the receiver receives the light, detects and records the amount of light. Since the receiver faces the ink cartridge under detection, the amount of light received from the ink cartridge under detection is greater than the amount of light received from the adjacent ink cartridge(s), and the amount of light received from the ink cartridge under detection is greater than a preset threshold. Accordingly, the main body of the imaging device may identify that the location of the ink cartridge is correct.
However, the conventional ink cartridge chips have the characteristics that: in a case that several ink cartridge chips are installed in an imaging device, light sources controlled by these ink cartridge chips emit light simultaneously, i.e., if all the ink cartridges installed in the imaging device are provided with such ink cartridge chips, it can be seen that light sources on all the ink cartridges are lighted up simultaneously and extinguished simultaneously at any time. Since in the technology for detecting location of ink cartridge the amount of light received by the light receiver from the light source on the ink cartridge is used to detect the location of the ink cartridge, the characteristics that the conventional ink cartridge chips are lighted up simultaneously keeps the amount of light received by the light receiver constant, so that conventional ink cartridge chips are not able to detect the location of ink cartridge.